Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving is something that every French person has heard about (thanks to shows like Friends), but not many have experienced.  Every year it's a challenge for us to determine who to invite, as we have limited space around our table, but every year it's also a huge blessing to both us and our guests.

Rather than host Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday night, when most people have been working all day and must work the following morning, we hosted the meal on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

This year, the preparations began a week ahead of time as I made Amish Cookies in the shapes of turkeys and leaves to give to neighbors.

[Unfortunately, Judah got sick, so we didn't get to give out as many on Thanksgiving Day as we'd hoped.... but it sounds like a good tradition to start....]

We then prepared the mashed potatoes on Monday before Thanksgiving.

As a way of pacing myself, I cooked/prepared a dish a day leading up to our Thanksgiving meal. 

It also helped the dishes to not feel quite so overwhelming. 

I was a bit disappointed to see cracks in my pumpkin pie, 

but Jordan saw the perfectly formed cross as a wink from God.  

A dear friend was visiting the week of Thanksgiving.  

After several rough nights with Judah, my friend insisted that I rest when Judah rested, and she took care of writing out the names on the place cards.

Everyone loved them!

In France, since Thanksgiving isn't a holiday, whole turkeys aren't readily available; 

therefore, we must order the turkey several weeks in advance.

This year, Jordan went to the butcher (one we haven't used before) 

and asked for a 6-7kg turkey (13-15lbs).  

The butcher was a bit surprised.  "Maybe 3-4kg?" he suggested. 

"No," Jordan insisted, "We need a turkey that is 6-7kg."  

The butcher continued, "Maybe 2 turkeys, 3-4kg each?" 

Jordan persisted and it was clear to the butcher that we needed a single turkey that was 6-7kg.  

On Friday night, the day before our big meal, Jordan went to the butcher to pick up the turkey.  

It was 11kg (24lbs)!!

The 11kg turkey wouldn't even fit in our oven!  

Jordan immediately returned to the butcher and had them cut the turkey in half.  

In the meantime, one family planning to join us got sick and, at 8pm the night before, had to cancel.  Suddenly we found ourselves with twice as much turkey and half the number of guests.  

We cooked one half of the turkey for Thanksgiving Dinner and went back a few days later for the other half which we cooked and shared (along with all of the other leftovers) with our small group.

In the Kissling family, it's the man's job to cook the turkey.  

Jordan has stepped into this role with no complaints and did an excellent job!

Saturday our guests began arriving just before noon....

None of our friends around our table had ever eaten a Thanksgiving meal.  

It was great fun to share this favorite tradition with them!

Thanksgiving Take 2:  Small Group

We also continued the tradition of tracing our hands and writing something for which we are thankful.  It will be especially fun to see Judah's hands grow in the coming years.